College Sports Blog

Writer: Texas QB David Ash the Longhorns’ most indispensable player

Coming into his freshman year, David Ash was an afterthought, someone buried on the depth chart behind incumbent starter Garrett Gilbert and a couple other quarterbacks with more experience in Case McCoy and Connor Wood.

But Wood transferred to Colorado before the season began and and injured Gilbert decided to transfer a couple months later, eventually landing at SMU. Still, it was McCoy who started under center, with Ash spelling him for one or two drives at a time.

By year’s end, Ash was the starter, earning Holiday Bowl MVP honors in a 21-10 win over Cal two Decembers ago.

It wasn’t until after fall camp that Ash was named the starting quarterback before his sophomore season and he didn’t exactly establish himself as the unquestioned starter.

That didn’t happen until this offseason. The 6-foot-3, 223-pounder from Belton is now alone atop the depth chart. It took him a couple of years, but Ash has gone from fourth-string quarterback to, according to ESPN Big 12 blogger David Ubben, the Longhorns’ most indispensable player.

“Texas is pretty close to being one of the most complete teams in the Big 12 on paper, but Ash holds a lot of that together,” Ubben wrote. “The Longhorns have legitimate Big 12 title asiprations, but it’s not happening with Case McCoy at quarterback for the conference season. Ash is the Big 12′s most experienced quarterback with 18 career starts, he’s shown the potential to be way, way above average.”

Ash passed for 2,699 yards, 19 touchdowns and eight interceptions last year, completing 67.3 percent of his passes while leading Texas to another bowl victory, this time over Oregon State in the Alamo Bowl. He is 11-7 as the Longhorns’ starting quarterback.

“Critique Ash’s shortcomings all you want, but he’s definitely good enough to win a Big 12 title considering the team around him, and no other quarterback on Texas’ roster can say that,” Ubben continued. “Unless they’ve got a big lead in the standings late in the season, an injury to Ash means saying goodbye to the Longhorns’ Big 12 title hopes. No other position has a player that integral to the team’s overall success.”

“The Longhorns have some promising freshmen on the roster in Tyrone swoopes and Jalen Overstreet,” Ubben wrote. “But no doubt about it: Texas’ most indispensable player is Ash.”

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